Month: November 2015

Week 2 of NaNoWriMo has now ended. It certainly went by much faster than the first week did. If you are pacing, your word count should be sitting at 21,666 words by the end of today.

Some people have already hit that 50,000 word mark. For those people: Congratulations!

For the rest of us, here are some things I have learned from week 2:

1) When you can, keep writing. Way past your word count if you can manage it at all. Because there are going to be days-and they are going to get more frequent as the month goes on-where you won’t be able to pull out 1667 words. You just won’t. Some days 1600 words is a lot more than other days.

Yesterday I struggled to hit 1600 words. I may not have even hit 1600 words, I don’t remember. What I do know is that I am really glad for the days that I wrote two or three thousand words because it meant that, right now, I don’t have to worry about how many words I write as long as I hit the goal for the day (or the next day. i’m trying to stay 1-2 days ahead of my word count)

Another advantage of being ahead on your word count for us “pantsers” is that it gives us time to do research. A few times i have had to look up myths or the genealogy of gods or weapons and it has been nice to have the time to do my research because I wasn’t wasting time that I should be using to write.

2) Don’t worry if you don’t know what happens next. It will come. I know, for me at least, if I don’t know the next event that is going to happen I struggle to write the current scene even if I know how at least that scene will go. But I’ve learned something as I have been writing. I may not know what is going to happen in the next scene or even what the next scene is, but as long as I start it everything falls into place. Will it need tweaking after this month? Of course it will. But so will even the most planned out novels. You are going to have to edit. Accept that and just write.

3)Using the word counter update on the NaNo site is addictive. If I come to a break in a paragraph or if I don’t know how to start the next sentence yet I will go to the website-which is a separate tab up in my browser-and I will update it. Sometimes it’s only been two or three hundred words. But something about updating it and seeing the bar for that day and for the month climb is incredibly satisfying.

Finding something that makes writing immediately rewarding for you-other than the knowledge you are working towards finished novel which I know is not always enough-can help you write that next few scenes. So find something that can give you an immediate payoff.

I am at a little over 5300 words. I ended up with today off and had a great deal of inspiration hit me when I was worried I would be blocked. (I am still worried that after I get through this part i won’t know what comes next but we will deal with that when it comes)

Currently I am completely “pantsing” it as they say. I had an outline all ready and everything. Chapter synopsis, character profiles(i have a hard time remembering what color I make people’s eyes and hair if it isn’t plot significant) And then I woke up on November 1st and decided to write a COMPLETELY different novel. The same novel, in fact, that I had decided not to do for NaNoWriMo because of the amount of research that I have to do to complete it.

But, we write the stories that speak to us and this is a story I have wanted to tell for a long time. It’s a hard story to tell because it is dark and just gets darker and darker as the story progresses with only slight breaks of humor from a different character. But Medusa(the main character) wants her story told. And so I am telling it.

I am glad to be ahead of the goal right now. I have some busy days coming up and I am worried about hitting my word count on those days. I will still try, naturally, but it will be less stressful if I am unable. Less discouraging because I won’t be falling behind.

That is my first piece of advice for those of you who are new to NaNoWriMo. Make your word count goals. Exceed them if possible but if not keep writing until you have hit the 1667 for the day. Because 1667 is not overwhelming to try and write in a day. But if you fall behind it’s really easy to give up because it’s very difficult to catch up once you are a day or two behind. So keep writing. Don’t worry about if the words are “good” or not. If you are passionate about what you are writing and you are enjoying the process than that is enough. December is for editing. Make your words pretty next month. This month just get them down.

How are you all progressing on your daily word counts? Any novel excerpts you are particularly proud of that you want to share?

Remember that if you want to keep in contact with me daily “Like” my page at www.facebook.com/EKUauthor. I would love to hear how your novels are coming along and I will be updating my own word counts daily on that page and posting inspiration I find.